Ten years ago, Bushey Museum acquired a 1902 photograph album belonging to the town’s most famous son, Sir Hubert von Herkomer, the celebrated painter and pioneering film director and composer. The condition of the album, along with its size, was such that it has never been displayed – until now.

As part of the museum’s programme of events to commemorate the century of Herkomer’s death, the album, together with enlargements of the photographs it contains, will be exhibited in the Jubilee Room.

The album records a visit by Herkomer, his wife Margaret and their son Lawrence to Waal in Bavaria where Herkomer was born.

The occasion is the erection of a memorial to the fallen in the 1870/71 Franco-Prussian war, which Herkomer had designed.

Herkomer was welcomed as a civic celebrity, with a town band, speeches, songs and bouquets. The family then went on to nearby Landsberg, where, in honour of his mother, Herkomer had built a tower which they used as a summer home. He included some watercolours of the town in his album.

The album also includes photographs of a small sculpture about which the musuem would like to know more.

It is clearly Herkomer’s work, and represents ‘the first stringed instrument’. Was this a model for a larger work, and where is this work now?

  • Bushey Museum, Rudolph Road, Bushey, until June 29, Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm. Details: 020 8420 4057, busheymuseum.org